How to Make Readers Love Your Blog in 5 Simple Steps

92% of the companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog.

A blog can boost your business especially if you know how to convert a new visitor into a real-time reader, and then a “lead” who subscribes to your blog.

The “stickier” you make your website and the more wow factor you deliver in your content, the better chances they’ll stay around for longer.

Here are a few ways to do just that.

1. Create Compelling Content

According to HubSpot, 46% of people read more than one blog a day and the number of readers is growing by the year.

Writing clear, compelling content should be your priority from day one. Your readers are not novices – they have been reading a lot of other blogs. If you don’t give them what they want, they’ll probably go looking elsewhere. That’s the last thing you want.

The first step is to write good content to make your website sticky. Here are a few types of content for which your readers will love you:

How-to’s, advice and in-depth tutorials

Best-of lists from the net. This requires more curation than writing. You collect the best posts from other authority blogs. Your readers come to you for more hand-picked content.

Videos and podcasts

Personal stories embedded in content to engage your reader

2. Offer Something for Free

Just writing great content isn’t enough. You have to do something to make them subscribe. And I am not talking about RSS here. The more number of people subscribe to your blog via email, the better.

With an active email list you can keep in touch with your readers and promote your products by combining copywriting and inbound content marketing skills.

If you’re wondering, copywriting is about making a sale and content marketing is about educating them through content. When you’re promoting a product, you want to combine both – not just use one or the other. Here’s a good explanation.

The next step is to offer a “lead magnet” for free in exchange for their name and email address. A lead magnet could be an ebook, a 10-step special report, a white paper, a series of lessons delivered in their inbox every week or an exclusive how-to video you made.

Make sure you choose an appropriate medium (audio, video, content) and a great topic that matters to your audience.

Have you got a lead magnet? Do your readers thank you for it?

3. Create a Clean Design

A good marketer will always think of ways how to create a better website for their audience. They ask smart questions such as:

Should I add more content above the fold?

Do I improve the CTA button?

How can I optimize my website for user experience?

A well-designed website will load quickly and be easy-to-read and navigate. In short, user experience comes first. Attention spans are getting shorter by the day. What are you doing to step up your game?

The “3-second” rule of website design says that 40% of people will
abandon a web page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

More and more users are making a buying decision on the web. In 2011, $1.1 trillion in sales in the retail sector was influenced by the web.

4. Optimize for Multiple Platforms

People love ease of access and what could be easier than using mobile phones to read a blog or make a purchase?

Apart from optimizing your website for search engines (SEO), you should also optimize it for mobile platforms. A mobile website immediately sends the right message – it helps you stand out as a brand that cares for the user’s optimal experience.

Mobile websites boost engagement. They are more efficient and cost much less than developing a dedicated app. Smart phone users are growing by the day, and soon, mobile phone browsing will overtake browsing over the PC.

But having a mobile-optimized website is not enough. Once you’ve got it up and running, measure it for performance. More often than not, what works on your normal website will not work on your mobile site.

Recognize the loopholes to convert more mobile site visitors into leads:

Is the CTA button too big for a smart phone screen?

Is the design too cluttered and overwhelming?

Are the colors working?

Do you have a mobile-friendly website? Have you optimized it
for mobile platforms like smart phones and iPads?

5. Go Visual for Viral

The average attention span in 2013 was 8 seconds, less than that of a goldfish and down from 12 seconds in 2000.

How can you make an impact in 8 seconds or less? Think visual. Human brains are wired for visual information. We can process a visual 60,000x faster than text.

90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual.
40% people respond better to visuals than to text.

Infographics, memes, videos, photos, images with quotes are some of the most “snackable” and sharable content on social media. It should not be surprising that most of the viral content online is also visual.

With the likes of Instagram and Pinterest, you can communicate your point with just an image and literally no text. Slideshare is another great platform to combine text with images.

A good example of how to use visual content to gain traffic is yTravel Blog run by a husband-and-wife team. They post cute “truth bombs” on their Facebook page with 20K+ likes and on Pinterest with 4.35 million followers.

Source: yTravel

If you’re wondering how much money it will cost, the answer is none.

There are many free online tools to help you get started with visual content. Presenter is one example that lets you create infographics, banners, demos and presentations all in one place.

With that, you really have no excuse
to not go visual in 2014, do you?

Good content surely brings good traffic for any blog because readers want to spend their time on useful stuff or info they want to get. Anyways great post from you Pooja.Triana would love you to read ..Meghan Trainor – The New Rising Singing Star

Hi
Nice post
I thinking writing content more informative and understandable by all the readers generates traffic.
And making our content visual friendly is the key factor now a days . Readers dont have much time to read your whole blog. you should design your blog reader friendly.
Thank you for posting this keyfctors of creating contentPriya N would love you to read ..MMHAPU Patna Recruitment 2014 – 40 Vacancies for Various Post

Hi Pooja,
Excellent post which contains very useful information regarding how to make readers loves your blog. No doubt all the point which you mention in your article are great, and your article is informative, inspirational and instructive. Thanks for sharing such an excellent post.Muhammad Mairaj would love you to read ..Ways To Get The Flood Of Worthwhile Blog Comments

Really Nice article and great tips for us so that we can manage user experience very carefully on our website . As i am new to blogging , I will surely use your tips and try it on my website for best results.

thanks for your knowledge with us. i am agree with you on lots of points and would like to add up something like the speed of your blog does matter lot? if people comes to your website doesn’t get what they want in 5 sec that will eventually affect bounce rate.so loading time of blog does matter lot.Mahesh would love you to read ..Get Best Funny,Professional,Love,Attitude Status For Whatsapp

I think you hit the nail on the head with all of these. Giving the reader what they want and make the blog sticky are what is going to bring viewers. People love easy to digest content such as lists and like you said curated posts from other bloggers.Danielle Branch would love you to read ..Procter & Gamble Coupons

Hey Pooja,
You really mentioned genuine ways to increase engagement with readers.By following the above steps,we can organically increase our readers experience.thanks for sharing these important techniques.Dasangam Rahul would love you to read ..15 Ways To Increase Facebook Likes Easily by 300%

I try all of these then the visits in my site increases. I know that the content of the blog is very important because the readers chooses something which can benefit them. But not only that, the reader also is searching for something which can entertain them. Just like the infographics. Provide them the interesting topic and pictures which can captivate their eyes and you can provide it to them free by just using the tool that is mentioned in the blog. Thank you.Julie Dawn Harris would love you to read ..Attention Small Businesses: Here’s Your Online Marketing Checklist this Year

Hello Pooja
Its really an informative article that you share here.I get to learn one new thing here through point number one that one can use video, real life story and these things give a good impact over the visitor. Also from now onwards i will focus on Visual information rather than writing long text article.
Thanxx for sharing.yogesh would love you to read ..Format and Point System of T20 World Cup 2014

The points you have mentioned definitely needs some expertise knowledge or guidance. Blogging is a constant balance between creating unique, original content and having that content recognized and shared by readers. In order to get recognized, bloggers must work hard to expand their network, because readers can\’t find a blog that isn\’t well advertised or optimized.Worli would love you to read ..5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Can Fail

I do agree with you that info-graphics are great way to make your blog posts go viral. I usually publish one quality infographic per month on my blog and gets many comments and shares on social networks.Aman Verma would love you to read ..20 Adsense Tips to Get Easy Adsense Approval

Really very nice tips..I am new to blogging and i will surly try to follow all your mentioned tips, I hope something good will happen for me..and i will be able to improve user experience and engagement on my site. thanks for the tips.Chris would love you to read ..100 Best WhatsApp Status

Thank you for these tips. As a freelance writer it is important to remember that people typically will not read a \”wall of text\”. In other words, people will skip over or stop reading paragraphs that are more than about 4-6 lines. Your advice about adding visuals is really helpful. Even folks who read blogs frequently prefer to have some pictures or other visuals to break up the reading. Thanks again!

Hmm. I see why I may not have been doing well. Go visual for viral is one of the most remarkable advise I have received this year which makes perfect sense.Henry Crawford would love you to read ..65+ Social Bookmarking Sites For Better SEO

Love the post, Pooja! Numbers 1 and 2 are in my opinion the two most critical steps businesses must take to ensure the success of their blogs. Nothing boosts traffic and leads more faster than epic content coupled with an awesome lead magnet.One thing I\’d add is to network with other bloggers and influencers. Commenting on other sites and reaching out to key individuals on social media is a great way to gain attention from people that count, and that in turn can lead to higher engagement and traffic.

Hello Pooja,
A very nice article about bluiding relationship with readers. Accoding to me, Making site sweet and simple is good , I mean use simple wp theme with easy navigations. Most important your readers are coming because of your content, not for the design and look.
Thanks.

Really informative and useful post. After reading out complete article. I realized that this is unique post.
Thanks for sharing such great and informative post.Ghulam Mustafa would love you to read ..Apple TV is a Rapidly Growing Drop in the Bucket

Info-graphics have really become a wonderfully powerful tool after the dawn of social media sites like Pinterest. But there are only specific niches that can use info-graphics. But nevertheless they can go viral and bring in some good quality traffic.Anas Shad would love you to read ..Weird Stuff: 10 Ridiculous Things Made of Gold

Thanks a lot for this post pooja you have clearly mentioned what is actually needed for a perfect blog and how it can result in serp and generate returning readersmmahessh would love you to read ..Independent houses for rent in jubilee hills

Offering something for free reall works everytime and that’s why I keep organising Giveaways on one of my blogs everytime so that Regular reader chain doesn’t break and they keep visiting my site.Rohit Dubey would love you to read ..How To Factory Reset Samsung Galaxy S3